Content:

(PaPaPa, B, C, LLL, VVV, N, A, DD, MM) Very strong pagan worldview, with extreme violence and a strong revenge motif, nihilistically overruns morality tale (including a few positive references to God and the Christian Cross) that, consequently, becomes too light in the face of such extreme negativity; 125 mostly very strong obscenities, five strong profanities, six light profanities, and a couple obscene gestures; extreme violence with blood includes man’s leg blasted off by shotgun, cold-blooded murder, people shot pointblank in head and chest, car driver deliberately rams van with driver in it at high speed, intense fighting, man bashes another man’s head several times onto parking roof pavement, and car falls off parking garage roof; no sex; upper male nudity and wife comforts crying husband in shower; alcohol use; smoking and implied drug pushers in their meth lab; and, lots of revenge not really rebuked but which, in fact, actually titillates audience at times, plus antagonism between sons and fathers.

Summary:

DEATH SENTENCE stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a mild-mannered insurance accountant and family man whose world is turned upside down when a ruthless urban gang murders his favorite son. DEATH SENTENCE is a brutal morality tale that loses its moral points amid a whole lot of bloody carnage, revenge and very strong foul language.

Review:

DEATH SENTENCE is a brutal morality tale that loses its moral points amid a whole lot of bloody carnage and revenge.

The movie stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a mild-mannered insurance accountant who enjoys his family, especially his older son Brendan, who’s very athletic. One night, however, while driving back from a hockey game in the city, the youngest member of an evil gang deliberately murders Brendan at a gas station’s mini-mart. Nick is able to identify the young thug, a teenager named Joe Darley.

Before Joe’s hearing, however, the prosecutor tells Nick that he can only get Joe three to five years because Nick didn’t actually see the murder and the gas station didn’t have any video cameras. Devastated by his son’s untimely, senseless death, Nick decides not to bother with the hearing and spies on Joe when Joe exits the courthouse to get a ride from his fellow gang members. Nick follows the gang as they drop off Joe at the place where he lives.

The next night, Nick returns with a knife in his pocket. He watches Joe takes out the trash. Nick starts beating him up. During the ensuing struggle, the knife accidentally kills Joe. Nick hides the evidence, however.

Joe’s older brother, Billy, the gang’s leader, puts two and two together. The gang goes after Nick, but Nick manages to put another gang member in the morgue. Even more angry now, Billy decides to murder Nick, Nick’s wife and their other son, Lucas. The rest of the movie tells a tale of violent revenge.

Elements of DEATH SENTENCE clearly show the violent tragedy that can occur if you take the law into your own hands, especially in a spirit of anger and revenge. The movie also has a few nifty metaphors that add depth to the drama. Even so, the movie’s moral points and artistry gets lost in the excessive bloody violence and revenge that takes over the last third of the movie. After the carnage, the filmmakers do try to return to the movie’s deeper moral metaphors, but, like the ending to Martin Scorsese’s movie TAXI DRIVER which this movie patterns itself after, it’s too late to try to impose some tastefulness once an artist has gorged himself on tasteless excess. DEATH SENTENCE also contains an extreme amount of very strong foul language.

The United States justice system is clearly broken down because it has discarded the Bible’s definition of Justice, but this movie will only fan the flames of criminal violence and revenge.

In Brief:

DEATH SENTENCE stars Kevin Bacon as Nick Hume, a mild-mannered insurance accountant who enjoys his family, especially his athletic older son Brendan. One night, however, while driving back from a hockey game in the city, the youngest member of an evil gang deliberately murders Brendan at a gas station’s mini-mart. This sets Nick on a violent journey of revenge that keeps escalating until Nick decides to just go with the flow and start shooting back.

DEATH SENTENCE is a brutal morality tale that loses its moral points amid a whole lot of bloody carnage and revenge. Elements of DEATH SENTENCE clearly show the violent tragedy that can occur if you take the law into your own hands, especially in a spirit of anger and revenge. Even so, this moral point gets lost in the excessive bloody violence and revenge that takes over the last third of the story. DEATH SENTENCE also contains an extreme amount of very strong foul language. The justice system in the United States is clearly broken because it has discarded the Bible’s definition of Justice, but this movie will only fan the flames of criminal violence and revenge.